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India seemed to get everything right on an action-packed fourth day but the Australia captain ensured his bowlers were in with a chance

Sidharth Monga at the Chinnaswamy Stadium12-Oct-2010The Australians wouldn’t exactly have been craving it, but a tour to India is not quite complete if you haven’t experienced the home side getting on a roll. That’s when the Indians go mad. The ball starts turning and jumping, or reversing, the fielders start diving and throwing accurately, faltering keepers don’t let anything through, thousands of people appeal along with the 11 on the field. In that crazy atmosphere, that mad dance, that mayhem, the opposition melts. As though they are caught in the headlights and have nowhere to go.It was something South Africa faced at Eden Gardens earlier this year. South Africa had reached 218 for 1 in 58 overs but they also lost eight wickets for 53. Harbhajan Singh took three in two overs, VVS Laxman ran backwards to take a catch, three from their middle order got themselves out, and Zaheer Khan got one with a pick-up-and-throw.Australia haven’t experienced that kind of roll on this tour. They have only been at the receiving ends of two semi-rolls, in the second innings of both the Tests. In the second of those, today, credit should go to Ricky Ponting for not freezing when wickets were falling around him, and not letting India develop it into a full-fledged roll.That India started to get on one came as a bit of a surprise. Following Sachin Tendulkar’s dismissal for 214, an innings that put India into a position from where they could bat Australia out, India ambled without any direction into the second session. MS Dhoni and the tail looked to neither preserve wickets to waste enough time nor hit out and go for a win.The immediate result was a collapse of 5 for 9, and it was followed by an average bowling start. As Shane Watson and Simon Katich added 58 without trouble, it seemed Australia would have to make an adventurous declaration on the fourth morning to make something out of this situation.Suddenly Pragyan Ojha produced an accurate arm ball. Suddenly Harbhajan got one to bounce and turn. Suddenly the crowd was woken from up from a collective power nap. The whole Chinnaswamy Stadium appealed almost every ball.Dhoni, in ordinary form behind the stumps so far, held on to a sharp catch. He then followed to show the effectiveness of his newly acquired habit. When he is keeping to the spinners nowadays, he has zero follow-through. And every time he collects the ball, he whips the bails off. That might have seemed a bit unnecessary to some, but when – post routine – he saw Michael Clarke stranded on the line, sucked there by an offbreak, he erupted in joy.Three wickets had fallen in six overs, and India were in their mad dance now. Cheteshwar Pujara hardly let anything go past his close-in positions, although nothing carried to him. Suresh Raina often made one-handed pick-ups-and-throws. The umpires were under pressure with extremely close shouts in almost every over.Between this semi-roll and roll, though, stood Ponting, with his third score in the 70s out of four innings. He batted with resolve, scored off anything half loose, and managed to get the fielders out of his face. He seemed to be on his way to playing his most important innings in India, but then Zaheer intervened. His third solid innings on the tour may have ended in disappointment, but Ponting has given Australia something to bowl at.India, though, will be pleased that Zaheer and Sreesanth came back the way they did. That all four bowlers, for the first time in the series, worked together as a unit would have pleased them the most. That the pitch still hadn’t quite become a horror to bat on. Sachin Tendulkar later credited the bowlers for coming back from the early wobble, but wasn’t taking anything for granted.”It’s going to be a big day for us tomorrow,” he said. “The Test match is at a critical stage. It’s all about how we deal with pressure and apply ourselves.”We don’t want to take anything for granted. It’s going to be exciting and that’s what I can say. It’s going to be a wonderful day.”Wonderful day indeed, but also the last of the “series”.

Both Sachin Tendulkar and Hashim Amla have been hugely disappointing in Durban Tests so far. Can they rectify the anomaly this time?

S Rajesh24-Dec-2010South Africa’s complete domination in Centurion, and the pace, seam and bounce that is likely to be on offer in Durban make the home team the firm favourites for the Boxing Day Test against an opponent that has struggled to come to grips with the Kingsmead conditions in the past. India have lost their two most recent Tests there, in 1996 and in 2006, by huge margins – by 328 runs in 1996, and by 174 runs ten years later.India’s only consolation is the fact that the home team themselves haven’t been very comfortable playing here recently – they only have a 5-3 win-loss ratio at Kingsmead over the last ten years, and have lost their last two Tests. In both these matches, South Africa were bundled out for less than 150 in one of their innings: Australia bowled them out for 138 in their first innings in March 2009, while England dismissed them for 133 in the second innings in last year’s Boxing Day Test. South Africa’s win-loss ratio of 1.66 at this ground is only third among their home venues, and much poorer than their ratio of 9 in Centurion and 4.50 in Cape Town.

South Africa and India in Durban Tests

TeamTestsWonLostDrawnSouth Africa – since 200010532India – since 19903021The batting and bowling stats for India at this ground indicate how difficult it’s been for their batsmen to come to grips with the conditions here. In three Tests, India’s totals read thus: 277 in 1992, 100 and 66 in 1996, 240 and 179 in 2006. The Indian batsmen have an overall average of 15.60, with Praveen Amre being the only one to get a hundred here – he scored a gutsy 103 in the drawn game in 1992. Their bowlers have done pretty well in Durban, averaging 28.72 runs per wicket, but the batsmen have been so poor that they haven’t given the bowlers any chance at getting them back in the match.South Africa’s batsmen have done much better, averaging more than 34 runs per wicket, and scoring 12 hundreds in ten Tests.

Batting and bowling stats for SA and Ind in Durban

TeamRunsAverage100sWicketsBowl aveSouth Africa – since 2000510834.281216731.39India – since 199078015.6015128.72The table below won’t make pleasant reading for Indian fans: most of their batsmen have performed very poorly in Durban. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have been particularly disappointing: in five innings, Tendulkar has scored more than 15 only once. One of those five dismissals was a run-out, in 1992, which made him the first cricketer to be given out by the third umpire (Karl Liebenberg of South Africa). In fact, Tendulkar’s performances in Durban is largely the reason why his overall stats in South Africa are below par – remove his Durban numbers, and his average in South Africa goes up to 52.29.Dravid has been similarly poor, with scores of 7, 27 not out, 11 and 5 in his four innings in Durban, though that unbeaten 27 in an Indian total of 66 offered an early glimpse of the class and grit that he possessed.

Indian batsmen in Durban

BatsmanTestsRunsAverage100s/ 50sVVS Laxman16565.000/ 1MS Dhoni18140.500/ 0Sachin Tendulkar39318.600/ 1Rahul Dravid25016.670/ 0Virender Sehwag184.000/ 0For South African batsmen, the numbers are mixed. Jacques Kallis is the highest run-getter at the ground, and one of only two batsmen to score more than 1000 Test runs here. In 22 innings, Kallis has scored 1124 runs at an average of more than 56, with nine fifty-plus scores. He has scored at least a half-century in each of his last eight Tests at Kingsmead.AB de Villiers has been pretty impressive too, with four fifties and a century in 11 innings, but for a couple of other batsmen the stats aren’t as imposing. Graeme Smith has only managed one century in 15 innings, and an average of less than 35, but even that is pretty good compared to Hashim Amla’s numbers. Amla has been batting like a dream over the last year, but Durban Tests have usually been nightmares for him: in nine innings, only twice has he scored more than 6. His list of scores in Durban look like this – 1, 0, 1, 0, 69, 0, 43, 2, 6. With 1200 Test runs already under his belt in 2010, and this game being his 50th Test match, this is perhaps the ideal opportunity for Amla to end his Durban jinx.

South African batsmen in Durban

BatsmanTestsRunsAverage100s/ 50sJacques Kallis13112456.204/ 5AB de Villiers646051.111/ 4Ashwell Prince535043.752/ 0Graeme Smith944934.531/ 2Mark Boucher1248928.761/ 4Hashim Amla512213.550/ 1Among the South African bowlers in the current squad, none have a particularly impressive record. Dale Steyn’s only five-for at this ground came against a relatively weak West Indies, but his overall stats here are well below his career average of 23.65.

South African bowlers in Durban

BowlerTestsWicketsAverageStrike rate5WI/ 10WMDale Steyn41630.6253.81/ 0Jacques Kallis91439.0782.30/ 0Morne Morkel3841.2569.70/ 0Paul Harris2393.33180.00/ 0And while plenty has been written and said about how much the conditions will assist fast bowlers, the fact is that spinners haven’t done badly here either. Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan had plenty of success at this venue – Warne took 14 wickets in two Tests and Murali 11 in one – while more recently, Graeme Swann had match figures of 9 for 164 in last year’s Boxing Day Test. Overall, spinners have taken far fewer wickets than fast bowlers in Durban Tests since 2000, but their wickets have come at a lesser average than that of the fast bowlers.

Pace and spin in Durban since 2000

WicketsAverageStrike rate5WI/ 10WMPace23534.2663.56/ 0Spin7631.2262.14/ 1The innings-wise average runs per wicket here over the last ten Tests shows batting first is generally slightly tougher than batting in the other three innings. However, there are no clear-cut trends in terms of toss decision, or in terms of batting or fielding first giving teams a distinct advantage. The captain winning the toss has batted and fielded five times each in the last ten Tests, and of the eight times a Test has ended decisively during this period, four have been won by the team batting first, and as many by the team fielding first.

Innings-wise runs per wicket in Durban since 2000

1st innings2nd innings3rd innings4th innings30.3736.3635.3534.79

It was another tough day in the Cardiff chill for Sri Lanka’s attack and they will have to consider new faces

ESPNcricinfo staff29-May-2011″Change” has been the buzzword in Sri Lankan cricket over the past few months, and the Cardiff Test was the first serious cricket for its reconfigured squad. With four days done with and plenty of rain predicted on Monday, the visitors have learnt precious little about the identity of their best bowling attack.If the Lord’s pitch is one on which they can play only one specialist spinner, should it be the highly rated offspinner Suraj Randiv, the all-sorts spin of Ajantha Mendis or the steady, experienced left-arm offerings of Rangana Herath? Dilhara Fernando should walk into the attack if he recovers from his knee trouble and the left-arm quick Chanaka Welegedara waits in the wings, but with none of the three right-arm quicks making a convincing case in Cardiff, their pace bowling department also remains hard to predict.”Nothing against Cardiff but wickets dead and nobody’s interested, Ashes test was dull apart from last half hour,” was Andrew Flintoff’s Twitter verdict on this match midway through the third day. Unlike the Ashes Test, which ended with England hanging on to a thrilling draw after their final pair defied Australia for 11 overs, there is little chance of an exciting denouement this time, especially with England down to three specialist bowlers after the injury to James Anderson.”This is a stop-start, stop-start Test match which is hard on the players,” Farveez Maharoof said. “There is not much cricket played in this match, two innings not even completed in four days, you can’t take much out of this Test match, we have already lost 100 overs.”Though it was mostly another day of hard labour for Sri Lanka’s bowlers – only three wickets going down – there were far more chances created, and there were clear ploys to constrict the England batting early in the afternoon. Some quick runs at the start of play, especially with Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott already past their centuries, could have given the more enterprising batsmen to follow – Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan – the freedom to play the big shots and leave Sri Lanka facing a battle on the final day.Instead, the runs came in a trickle. Herath bowled a marathon 21-over spell from the River Taff End, coming over the wicket and into the rough created by the quicks. The leg-stump line stifled Trott, who resisted any urge to go for a big against-the-turn swipe towards midwicket.At the other end, Maharoof operated with a 7-2 off-side field, with only deep square-leg and a slightly deep mid-on on the leg side. Consistently keeping the ball outside off, with a wall of fielders protecting the runs, England were shackled though the wickets remained intact.”It was a tough day at the office, credit should go to the English batsmen,” Maharoof said. “They batted really well. Personally I’m coming back after three and a half years, it is tough, but that is what Test cricket is all about.”It was only in the last hour or so that Sri Lanka started to leak the runs, with England piling on 84 in the final 18 overs. “Most of our bowlers bowled pretty well, we had a plan and we stuck to it,” Maharoof said. “In the latter part we let them go, we could have been more consistent with our lines and lengths.”Surprisgly Mendis, one of the more threatening bowlers on Saturday, was given only three overs during the day. Whether that was a strategy to keep him hidden from the marauding England batsmen for future challenges or an indication that he is going to be left out of the Lord’s Test remains to be seen. With England likely to declare early on the final day to push their remote chances of victory, it will be interesting to see what bowling line-up the new Sri Lanka team management picks next week.

At the age of 29, James Anderson is finally achieving the status that seemed pre-ordained when he was plucked from league cricket in Burnley as a 20-year-old

Andrew Miller at Edgbaston14-Aug-2011In the course of his seven years as England coach, there was no single bowler who caused Duncan Fletcher more head-scratching than James Anderson. Steve Harmison had his frailties and Matthew Hoggard never received the full endorsement of his boss, but both men nevertheless grew to become integral cogs in the last England team to challenge for world domination.Anderson, by contrast, remained a stranger within the bosom of Fletcher’s squad – a muted personality with a muddled mindset, whose precocious arrival on the scene in December 2002 soon gave way to over-coaching and under-use, as a succession of England management staff tried in vain to work out what exactly made him tick. It was fitting, therefore, that on the day England finally attained the status that Fletcher had yearned for throughout his tenure, it was Anderson’s irresistible morning spell that provided the final leg-up to the top.In an extraordinarily one-sided session on the fourth morning, India’s batsmen showed they had fewer answers to the Anderson question than Fletcher himself, as they poked and wafted at a flotilla of off-stump screamers. At one stage Anderson had figures of 4 for 34 in ten overs – and this in a contest in which Alastair Cook went 188 overs without offering so much as a chance. The zipping, harrying, relentless examination was more than India cared to deal with, and at 116 for 6 at lunch, all that remained was a face-saving tonk from the tail.With 18 wickets in the series to date, Anderson has cemented his place as the No. 2 bowler in the world Test rankings – behind South Africa’s Dale Steyn for the moment, but unquestionably the first pick in a pack of English fast bowlers that has propelled their team to the summit. Anderson and his acolytes may lack the sheer terror of the West Indian quartet of the 1980s, but the totality of their methods is cut from the same cloth. Relentless, suffocating pressure is their modus operandi, and the fact that Anderson – who once answered to the unflattering nickname “Daisy” [“some days he …”] – is central to that approach speaks volumes of the distance he has come.”He’s been an integral part of our development as a side,” Andrew Strauss said at the end of the Edgbaston Test. “We’ve all seen his onfield exploits with the swinging ball, and even when it hasn’t swung, he’s become a very effective campaigner. He’s not an out-and-out quick bowler now, but he’s very smart in what he does, and also, off the pitch, he’s become an increasingly important part of the working of our side, the way he interacts with other bowlers, the example he sets, and he’s really matured as a person.”We’re hopeful his best years are still ahead of him, but we’re obviously delighted with what he’s achieved in the last couple of years.”At the age of 29, Anderson is finally achieving the status that seemed preordained when he was plucked from league cricket in Burnley as a 20-year-old, and sent to reinforce England’s ailing one-day squad in Australia in the aftermath of the 2002-03 Ashes. His achievements on that trip included a spell of ten overs for 12 in a one-dayer in Adelaide that led, in turn, to his call-up for the World Cup, where four wickets under the lights at Cape Town provided England with their one true highlight of the tournament – a memorable win against Pakistan.Five wickets on Test debut soon followed against Zimbabwe, as well as another starring role against Pakistan, a one-day hat-trick at The Oval. But Anderson’s premature stardom torched his credentials almost before they’d been established. A red “go-faster” stripe through his hair attracted the sort of media attention that no young sportsmen needs to bring upon themselves, but more worrying for the management was his sheer unreliability. The knowledge of what he was capable mitigated the days when his radar would go awry, but only up to a point, and after his first 12 Tests, his average and run-rate (36.40 and 3.75) both had him labelled as a liability.Even at this senior stage of his career, with Alec Bedser now among the English legends whom his wickets-tally of 237 has eclipsed, Anderson hasn’t quite been able to write off those shortcomings of his youth. His average, for instance, still hasn’t managed to dip below 30, but the font of experience that he is able to bring to the equation is invaluable. No-one else in the squad – not even the captain, Andrew Strauss, whose debut came a year later in 2004, and whose career trajectory has suffered just a solitary blip in the winter of 2007-08 – knows half as much about international failure, and consequently, what it really takes to succeed.James Anderson is now No. 2 in the ICC Test bowling rankings•Getty ImagesSuccess for Anderson was deferred until the end of Fletcher’s reign. In the interim he suffered the ignominy of being overlooked throughout that epic summer of 2005 – Chris Tremlett was England’s designated 12th man for the first four Tests, while Paul Collingwood’s solid character was trusted ahead of Anderson’s flair for the crucial decider at The Oval. Meanwhile, his performances overseas made him out to be the little lost boy of the world game. In his first eight Test tours, he was selected for seven matches, but would invariably appear to bowl at a single stump during lunch breaks, honing his technique for the day that would never come.All the while, something strange was happening to Anderson’s action. Troy Cooley’s success with the likes of Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff was legendary, but his attempts to iron out Anderson’s habit of peering into his left armpit at the point of delivery proved disastrous. The meddling robbed an instinctive cricketer of the natural swing that had earned him England recognition in the first place, while transferring new stresses onto previously ungrooved parts of his body. His back duly gave way in May 2006; an injury that wrote off his season but at least gave him the excuse to dispense with the tinkering. By the following summer, with Fletcher coincidentally now out of the picture, he was at last ready to be his own man.Peter Moores’ reign as England coach proved to be short and bitter, but aside from calling in Graeme Swann and Ryan Sidebottom from the cold, his one lasting triumph was the manner in which he turned Anderson into the attack leader for a new generation. He showed glimpses of what lay in store during the 2007 home series against India, when his seven wickets at Lord’s all but wrapped up a rain-saved match, but his true second coming was at Wellington in March 2008.One game earlier, while Harmison and Hoggard had been bowling their way out of the team during an abject display at Hamilton, Anderson had been released from the squad to go and play for Auckland – a controversial arrangement, but one that was infinitely preferable to yet another round of single-stump practice in the lunch breaks. He responded to the fine-tuning with a crucial five-wicket haul in a series-turning display, and from that moment on, he has scarcely looked back. His last 42 Tests have reaped 175 wickets at 27.45 and an economy rate of 3.04.”I want to be the bowler that the captain can throw the ball to when we need a wicket,” Anderson stated after that Wellington performance, and sure enough that’s exactly what he has become. Even so, the final aspect of his development has required a certain degree of regression, because it has been the solidity of his stock performances rather than the dynamism of his breakthrough moments that have defined his role in the second half of his career.In short, he has given up trying to bowl the “magic ball” – the sort of jaw-dropping jaffa that Yousuf Youhana received at Cape Town in 2003, or Aaron Redmond at Trent Bridge in 2008. Under the tutelage of David Saker, a bowling coach who cares more about tactics and mindset than technique, Anderson has resolved never to offer up anything that can be cut, which means beating a tattoo on a good length on and outside off, and conforming to an orthodoxy that is far removed from his maverick beginnings.His methods have been too subtle for a host of recent opponents, from Pakistan last summer via Australia in the winter, where, on Saker’s watch, a new “wobbly seam” delivery gave him a weapon that enabled him to transcend the vagaries of the Kookaburra ball and transform his own reputation in unresponsive conditions. The truest challenge for Anderson’s methods now lies in the subcontinent this coming winter, where Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be expecting to thwart England’s formidable momentum. But like the team that he has helped to haul from mediocrity to the top of the tree, he’s ready for the challenge. Anderson knows the taste of failure, and he wants nothing more to do with it.

Stats highlights from an absolutely riveting day of Test cricket at the Wanderers

S Rajesh21-Nov-2011 Australia’s score of 310 is the highest in a successful chase at the Wanderers, and the fourth-highest in South Africa. Australia have been the winning team on three of those four occasions. Ricky Ponting’s 62 is his highest Test score in more than a year. During this period, he has averaged 20.46 in 16 innings, with only two fifties. Before this knock, he had gone 13 innings without a half-century. Similarly, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson saved their best for this key day as well. Haddin played 106 balls for his 55 – it was the first time he’d faced more than 100 deliveries in a Test innings in 17 innings, extending over almost a year. Johnson had a poor game with the ball, but as a batsman he made significant contributions in both innings, remaining unbeaten on 38 and 40. His match aggregate of 78 runs was his highest since March 2009, when he’d scored 35 and 123 not out in Cape Town. This was his 26th Test since that game. For South Africa, Vernon Philander was the undoubted star of the series. He finished with 5 for 70 in the second innings, and thus has two five-fors in his first two Tests. The last two bowlers to achieve this were Fidel Edwards and Richard Johnson, both in 2003. Before that, it was Narendra Hirwani way back in 1988. Philander is also the fourth South African to achieve this. The others – Peter Heine, Lindsay Tuckett and Norman Gordon – all achieved it before 1956. The result will hurt South Africa’s aspirations to take the top spot in the ICC Test rankings. The defeat pushes South Africa down to 115 points, well behind England’s 125. Had South Africa won, they’d have moved up to second place with 120. Had they then beaten Sri Lanka 3-0 in the home series to follow, they’d have moved to No.1 with 126 points. Even if they achieve that margin against Sri Lanka now, they’ll only have 119 points.

On a disastrous tour, Yadav’s good days have been overshadowed by other bigger events. Under the shadow of the bigger picture is India’s rare positive from this tour

Sidharth Monga in Adelaide21-Jan-2012Umesh Yadav does not speak English. However, he can bowl fast – for an Indian – and move the ball too. His first press conference in Australia was on the day Michael Hussey had been given out caught behind without having touched the ball. The Australian press was annoyed at the absence of DRS, and wanted answers from anybody who represented India. There was rage in the press box and commentary booths.Yadav had bowled to Ricky Ponting in front of a 70,000-plus Boxing Day crowd with more poise than he fronted up to the press. It didn’t help that he has no media training or translators. One of the Indian journalists was asked to translate what he said. Yadav was asked why his side didn’t want the DRS. “I don’t know,” he said. What he meant was he didn’t know what to say, but he had frozen. It is credit to the newspapers here that it didn’t get reported out of context.The next time Yadav attended a press conference he had taken five wickets at the WACA. But on the same day, India lost four second-innings wickets, which had sealed the fate of the match and the series. Yadav was asked that day was if it felt bad that his maiden five-for was coming in a big defeat, about Sachin Tendulkar’s unusual reaction at being given out lbw and other angry questions.On a disastrous tour, Yadav’s good days have been overshadowed by other bigger events. Under the shadow of the bigger picture is India’s rare positive from this tour. If this whole series was played at Lord’s, Yadav would be the only Indian on the honours board. Clearly, he is more at home doing what he does than talking of what he does.Yadav is fit, strong, quick, and gets the ball to swing late. More importantly, he attacks the stumps, and doesn’t wait for edges. Eleven of his 21 Test wickets have been bowled. Another has been lbw. Five matches is a short career for a bigger statistical analysis, but it is worth mentioning that he takes a wicket every 39.2 balls. It is not at large odds with his overall first-class strike-rate of 46.8. Attacking the stumps also leaves less control on the run flow, which shows in his economy rate of 4.24 in Tests.This kind of bowling doesn’t usually sit well with MS Dhoni, but thankfully, Yadav has been given the licence to bowl quick, and because of his good flowing action he looks the likeliest man to buck the Indian trend of bowlers losing their pace after a good, quick start.Zaheer Khan said of Yadav: “The way he is bowling I am very happy. The way he is taking the responsibility. I think that freedom is important for him. At this age, especially four-five Test matches in, you are allowed to make mistakes. What is important is how you are approaching the game. What attitude you bring to the ground. I am very happy with his attitude. He is a wicket-taker, so that is what his job will be.”In other attacks, the mistakes Zaheer spoke about can remain inconspicuous. Yadav, though, is part of an Indian attack that doesn’t always complement him with control from the other end. He has also been part of a unit whose plans were dated: they tried to bounce Ponting out at the MCG, which is a throwback to 2009-10.Yadav is hardly a finished article. He can get carried away with the short ball, he was ineffective in Sydney, but already he has shown the best grasp among Indians of what length needs to be bowled on pitches that have helped seam movement and swing.As India look to salvage something in the series, Adelaide promises to be the biggest test in Yadav’s short career. The pitch will be flatter, the opposition is on a high, but if the Indian batsmen can finally deliver, Yadav might, for a change, have some cushion to work with.

He burst onto the Test scene with a dazzling hundred more than three years ago, but faded quickly. Now, JP Duminy says he has ironed out flaws in his technique and, on evidence so far, could be on the comeback trail

Firdose Moonda at the Basin Reserve 24-Mar-2012The words “you hero, you superstar,” probably rang in JP Duminy’s ears for 15 months after television commentator Mark Nicholas used them to describe him. The praise had been elicited when Duminy scored 166 in his second Test, in a win over Australia at the MCG in December 2008. They became synonymous with Duminy and his potential. In February 2010, he probably stopped hearing them.Scores of 7, 9, 0 and 6 in four innings had led to him being dropped from the Test side. The fairy tale had ended, the superstar had fallen, and the road back would be long. Now, he may have taken his first few steps on it.”I knew with the form I had at that time I was always going to be left out then,” Duminy admitted. “It was just about building confidence again and putting runs on the board for the team.”Apart from the string of low scores, there were technical issues Duminy faced, which resulted in him being dropped. He had been exposed as being vulnerable against the short ball by England, and then struggled against spin in India. If he hoped to make it as a Test cricketer, he would have to sort out those problems. Like so many before him, Duminy would have to go back to the first-class setup to work on his game.Almost unnoticed to all but those who are dedicated watchers of South Africa’s first-class competition, Duminy began to show improvement. He worked with the coaches at the Cobras franchise, Shukri Conrad and Richard Pybus, and with former national coach Corrie van Zyl to iron out his technique. Duminy did not play that many first-class games – seven in the last two seasons, including one for South Africa A against the touring Australians in November 2011 – but he did well enough to get noticed. Last season, he scored his first double-hundred and this season he racked up a century and two fifties.The numbers probably do not matter as much as the technical improvements. It is hard to judge to what extent Duminy has corrected his weaknesses from one Test innings, but he insisted that the progress had been evident during his 76 not out in Wellington. “I have done a lot of work behind the scenes, so I’m fairly comfortable with the short stuff at the moment,” Duminy said. New Zealand’s bowlers have presented him with plenty of short balls during his stay at the crease and he has shown good judgment in keeping his pulls down or leaving the deliveries alone.Duminy also said he had worked out how to handle spin. “I think I’ve gotten past the spin issue. It was generally offspin that troubled me a year or two ago. Like the short stuff, I worked hard at it.” He admitted that he has not really been tested in that department by the current New Zealand attack. “Luckily for me they don’t have a specialist offspinner in their side and I’ve always felt quite comfortable against left-arm spin.”While he has been out of the Test side, Duminy has continued to be a part of South Africa’s plans in the limited-over formats. That may, he said, have made him approach his innings in Wellington with aggression. “I’ve played one-day cricket before this so that may be the cause of it. With the nerves kicking in, you just want to get bat on ball, but once I got into it I settled down and played my natural game.”Duminy got his first break in Test cricket because of an injury to Ashwell Prince, and his form ensured that Prince could not find his way back into the side. On this occasion, his opportunity came when Jacques Kallis strained a muscle in his neck during training on Thursday and did not recover in time to make the starting XI.So far in Wellington, Duminy has handled himself with poise and confidence. He will perhaps not inspire as much enthusiasm as he did in Nicholas that day in Melbourne, and he will not be guaranteed a place in the near future. However, he has done enough to give the South African selectors reassurance that there is a competent replacement available for any of the middle-order batsmen.Edited by Dustin Silgardo

Ronnie Hira is tired of short-people jokes, and of being called Ron Weasley

Interview by Andrew Fernando04-Nov-2012How did you end up being a left-arm spinner?
I used to open the batting with Martin Guptill, and we’ve played in the same team since we were about eight. I actually used to bat ahead of him. Eventually, at 13 or 14, I ended up bowing spin, and here we are. Things change as you get a bit older.If there was a body part you could take from one of your New Zealand team-mates, what would it be?
I’d like to be a bit taller – everyone in our team is taller than me. Short guys battle with short jokes all the time.Are you and Kane Williamson in the same boat then?
Kane thinks he is a little taller than he is.Any personality traits from any of your team-mates that you don’t want?
Everyone talks about how Tim Southee is a bit of an annoyance, but his humour is good at times. Some guys get angry when they have been dismissed – I don’t want to say which ones – but I try to stay away from that.Ever unintentionally bowled one that turns the other way?
No, definitely not. I’ve tried to throw it a few times, but it just won’t happen for me. I need to break it down right from the start if I wanted to start doing that. It would be handy.You’re moving to the Canterbury Wizards this season. What will you enjoy about living there?
The earthquakes will take some getting used to, but I’m looking forward to the change of scenery.Given your new team is called the Wizards, do you have any fictional wizards you’re particularly fond of?
My brother has reminded me that Ron is a wizard in , so he’s been calling me Ron Weasley, which I’m trying to get him to stop doing.You’re touring Sri Lanka during the monsoon. What do you wish hotel rooms had to help while away rainy days?
Andre Adams is usually good on rainy days, because he carries around an Xbox and a projector, and that can be quite handy. I’ve just bought a laptop myself and the boys are talking about watching TV series. I need to get a hard drive, though.What’s the thing you miss the most about Auckland when you’re travelling?
The rainy weather’s probably pretty similar, but I’m not used to international cricket just yet and I haven’t been home since August. Just looking forward to getting home in general.Fish and chips or biryani?
Neither. I’ve had a few different cuisines since I’ve been away, but hopefully when I get home I can get some souvlaki in. Some Turkish food would be great.Any nicknames in the team?
I hardly ever get called by my real name. The Auckland boys call me “Rocket”, after Ronnie O’Sullivan, the snooker player. Everyone else just calls me Ronnie.Who in the team would you say is the worst influence on you?
In this team, we probably don’t have anyone like that. In the Auckland team, Lou Vincent gets up to some strange things. Lately he’s been carrying around this Justin Bieber doll. He’s one of the weirder characters I’ve been around.You’re not a big sledger. Any reason for that?
I just don’t have time for it. I’ve got other things to worry about when I’m playing. It’s hard enough to keep the ball in the park and not get hit for six.Do you think you bowl better with sunglasses on?
It’s not a fashion statement or anything, I’ve just got used to bowling with them on.

Constantly under scrutiny and perceived as a weak link in South Africa’s batting line up, Alviro Petersen made his fourth Test century proving his is a steady face among a fashionable order

Firdose Moonda at Headingley02-Aug-2012How different it would have been if Alviro Petersen’s edge off the third ball of the morning had gone to either third slip or gully and not the space in between them. He would have been out for second successive duck in the series and the gorgeous cover drive he played five overs later would never have made its appearance.How different it would have been if there had been a third slip when Petersen next edged in the 11th over. A catchable chance went to the boundary instead of to hand.And how different it would have been had Alastair Cook held on at second slip two balls later, or had Graeme Swann not been dropped and could have taken his usual position. Then Petersen would have been out for 29 and would likely have been criticised for attacking too early instead of being watchful.But none of those things happened.Instead, Petersen went on to record his fourth Test century in 15 matches and proved, once again, that pressure is his best trigger. That he was under pressure at all can only be gleaned from perception, not fact.Having not announced himself on the tour of England, Petersen was written up as being the weak link. He totalled 42 runs in four innings since the squad’s arrival on July 6, less than any of the other batsmen including Jacques Rudolph and JP Duminy, who did not get the opportunity to bat in the first Test. His duck in that Test throbbed in its neon obviousness that he had failed to cash in against conditions and an attack that others had feasted on.The reality is that Petersen had scored a hundred in the Test before the tour of England and was in no danger of losing his place. He was also not facing the chop when he scored his 156 in Wellington in March, having registered a century three matches before against Sri Lanka in Cape Town in January.Why Petersen always comes under scrutiny could have more to do with the people he bats with than who he is on his own. Four of South Africa’s top five are ranked in top ten Test batsmen by the ICC. Guess who is not?Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers have all scored runs in enough places for their positions not to come into question. They are the spine of South Africa’s line-up and it is easy to forget that for that spine to function properly, it needs all its vertebrae.Over the last few years, many different batsmen have been asked to slot in alongside the bigger names. Neil McKenzie did to acclaim for a while, Boeta Dippenaar never really fused with Smith the way he should have and although Ashwell Prince could do it, he simply did not want to play in that position. Unlike Matthew Hayden, Smith has never found his Justin Langer. The closest he came to that was Herschelle Gibbs and since the maverick opener’s retirement, no-one has really been able to call themselves his replacement.

Petersen has showed that the ocean floor is a lot lower than England thought and South Africa’s depth is multi-layered.

Batting with the ghost of opening batsmen of the past may have placed a subconscious burden on Petersen, especially when he was dropped after nine Tests having not done much wrong. Jacques Rudolph’s prolific form at Yorkshire and then the Titans forced his way back into the international game and the only way to include him in the starting XI at the time was to do away with Petersen. Ironic then, that Petersen has taken a big step to cementing his own position at the same ground which revitalised Rudolph’s career.What Petersen also showed is that the ocean floor is a lot lower than England may have thought and South Africa’s depth is multi-layered. He outbatted Graeme Smith to reach his first fifty in 78 balls. Despite the chances he gave and the number of times he played and missed, Petersen’s confidence did not appear to dip. He dug in and no matter how many times the ball beat his bat, he did not shy away.When England bowled the wrong line on his legs, he took advantage on his favoured on-side. When the short ball came, he pulled, twice to bring up his fifty and again to raise the hundred. In between that, he ground it out, particularly after lunch when England found an extra gear. Run scoring became almost as rare as England wickets, especially as Petersen eked over the 80s and into the 90s but his temperament remained solid.”He paced his innings so well,” AB de Villiers, who was with him when the century came up, said. “I found it really difficult out there for my 40-odd and he supported me. The way he played was inspiring.”If De Villiers found it difficult to face 107 balls, Petersen’s struggle can only have been magnified. He spent 266 balls at the crease in an all-day effort that was about batting ugly to usher the team through, not batting beautifully for personal glory. Convincing shots were not in abundance as he contended with old-fashioned line and length but hard fought ones were. Even right at the end of the day, Petersen did not look entirely control but until the last two wickets fell, he made sure South Africa were.

He still doesn’t have a hundred this year, but Sachin Tendulkar’s determined innings was an example of how to dig deep and was a display desperately needed by India

Sidharth Monga05-Dec-2012People get anxious when Sachin Tendulkar starts to defend. Not just in bars and barbershops, not just on Twitter and in tea shops, but also in commentary boxes full of former Test players and Tendulkar’s own team-mates. “The one that stays low can’t be too far”, “How long can he defend?”, “He’ll get out before stumps”. Ever so simplistically, everybody begins expecting a wicket the moment Tendulkar begins to respect bowlers.Everybody other than those who remember and swear by his hundred in Cape Town last year, where he basically defended and left alone through a crazy day’s play because, in his own words, “one had to play a little bit outside the line” to take singles, which he didn’t want to do. He scored 146 at a strike rate of 46.49 on a day when the ball swung and seamed to the whims of an on-song Dale Steyn, but by the time he went on his next overseas tour that masterclass in pure defence was forgotten, and pundits were back to predicting a wicket when Tendulkar blocked out as much as an over.The thing with Tendulkar is, he has played for so long you can find examples of almost every kind of innings. For every Cape Town against Steyn, there will be a Sydney when he began to play for a break and got out. And for every such innings, there will be Sydney from eight years earlier, when he obsessively cut out the cover-drive, and defended, defended, defended before opening up and scoring a double-century.It will be fair to say, though, that Tendulkar’s dismissals when defending stand out more than his successful and long displays of defence, or even the dismissals of, for the argument’s sake, Rahul Dravid when defending. Almost everybody has written off Tendulkar’s defence or prefers his attacking game.To Tendulkar it matters little. Speaking of his Cape Town innings, Tendulkar told ESPNcricinfo, actually making a larger point, “There are times when a batsman feels he is not moving well enough to take charge. And there are times when you feel, ‘I need not do this. I am in control. Why should I just do it for the heck of it?’ Somebody sitting in the stands or in the commentator’s box wants me to hit a boundary. Why should I do it? I have to score runs, I need to make my decisions.”Kolkata on Wednesday was neither of the magnitude of Sydney nor were the conditions and bowling as challenging as Cape Town, but it was an important innings considering what Tendulkar is going through. This is a fascinating Test if you want an insight into Tendulkar’s batting. He is 39, going through his leanest patch, India are struggling too, people are calling for his retirement, and he had both his edges beaten by a left-arm spinner in his last Test. How would he respond? Counterattack or absorb all the pressure and defend? Unlike outsiders, Tendulkar showed he trusted his defence again, playing an innings – albeit worth just 76 – that has kept India from rolling over and dying on a flattish pitch.This was an obsessed innings. In both innings in Mumbai, Tendulkar was dismissed playing across the line, looking for that single around the corner. This time he cut that shot out completely. Only three times did he play that shot, and on each of those occasions the ball was safely down leg. It’s a pursuit of batting perfection, played out in the pressure situation of a Test and despite his waning powers as a batsman.Forget the single, he didn’t mind playing out continuous maidens. Against Monty Panesar alone, his tormentor from Mumbai, he played six maidens. His 20 runs off 83 Panesar deliveries made for his second-slowest strike rate against a particular bowler in a particular innings (at least 60 balls long) since 2002. He either defended or left alone 88 deliveries out of the 155 he faced.And it needed some of the best defence today. If defending against Panesar was to overcome a personal demon, had he not played out James Anderson and Steven Finn in the afternoon, India would have lost more than just two wickets in the middle session. He played late against the reversing ball, he kept out the yorkers, he swayed out of the line of sharp bouncers, he watching the ball so closely that even those that kept low could not squeeze through. One of them he even punched away for a four.Just when Tendulkar was beginning to look comfortable, Finn managed to trouble him with movement each way. He was back to being cautious in those overs around the afternoon drinks break. It included that ferocious spell from Anderson too, which claimed Virat Kohli. After weathering those two spells, and a 21-over stint from Panesar, Tendulkar finally showed the first signs of confidence, lapping Graeme Swann to moving from 38 to 42. The innings began to flow, he even began to take the odd risk, but it ended to the first ball after the final drinks break of the day.Had that amount of concentration taken all he had to give at this age? Did he just get a ball from Anderson that was too good? Those are questions for Tendulkar to answer. What is certain, though, is that the innings was a superb show of discipline, a reaffirmation that he was prepared to play at a level below what he is used to, that he might do it every time he comes out to bat if that is what it takes to prolong his career. Most importantly, it was something India still need.